Bob Collins
Joshua Ploetz, a Minnesota veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, has completed his attempt to “paddle off the war” by canoeing down the Mississippi, chronicling his trip on a Facebook page. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for August 2014
Love, having spurned Minnesota, now takes his place in the long line of vilified Minnesota athletes. But basketball is a business, and Love and his agent played their hand perfectly. Read more →
Why are the people who hold office so afraid of being questioned? Read more →
The University of Minnesota reportedly is joining an attempt to prevent the Vikings from using the word Redskins in promotional advertising for its Nov. 2 game at TCF Bank Stadium. Read more →
NPR reports today on a study in Baltimore that appears to destroy the notion that education is the great equalizer. Instead, the study says, it’s family and money. You either have it or you don’t. End of story. Sort of. Read more →
When’s the last time you watched a floor speech with any passion in the U.S. Congress on any subject? Read more →
Algae doesn’t have a lot of friends, but it’s still pretty.
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He and his wife having paid off student loans in the last year, Daniel Sarles wasn’t looking forward to the idea of going right back into debt. But the 20-year old Camry with more than 200,000 miles wasn’t getting any younger. The Minneapolis man, 28, a financial analyst for UCare, has been driving it since Read more →
Political victory speeches are usually tame and boring things. Even if you hate your opponent, graciousness is the order of the day. Ronald Reagan declared it so when he created the 11th Commandment. Not in Michigan last night, and not for Rep. Justin Amash, the Republican who won his primary battle. One can hardly blame Read more →
A man was getting on a train in Perth this morning when he stepped back and into the gap between the train and the platform. He couldn’t get out. No problem, though. Because people saved him by moving the train. “Everyone sort of pitched in,” a spokesman for the transit authority said. “It was people Read more →
Why? Why does everything have to have a reason? Sometimes the world just needs a little video of a surfing pig, that’s why.
Israeli troops have left Gaza and it appears the 72-hour truce will hold. The troops left messages for the girls at the Beit Hanun High school which was reportedly used as an advanced base during Israel’s military offensive. Caution: Obscenities included in the images.
If you really love restaurant workers, you’ll start paying your tips in cash. Read more →
It doesn’t look like the Mount McKay is going to be a fixture tooling around the Duluth waterfront again, not unless someone buys it and treats the tugboat the way Don Bergholm and the boat’s engineer, Bruce Lindberg, did. The two restored the 1908 boat and worked the waterfront until cancer claimed Lindberg last year. Read more →
Minnesota is generally considered a high-tax state but the Thumbtack.com survey found that taxes was not statistically significant in defining whether a state is friendly to small businesses. Read more →